A.A. History
The “Original” A.A.
Program
Dick B.
Copyright 2004
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URL: http://www.dickb.com/index.shtml
Many Claims. Many Errors. One Truth
When was A.A. Founded?
You’d think by now that everyone knew. Yet I was active in A.A.
and its meetings for two or three years before I ever
heard mention of the founding. Finally, I learned that the date was June 10,
1935 – the date that Dr. Bob had his last drink. But that didn’t
satisfy today’s historians. They tinkered with dates and concluded that
Dr. Bob didn’t have his last drink on June 10th, that the medical
convention to which he went in
If you asked someone when George Washington cut down the cherry tree, just think how many different answers the historians might provide. Does it matter? Today, we don’t even seem to celebrate his birthday and prefer lumping all our presidents together.
Well, AAs do care. It matters to them. So I
set forth all the arguments and dates long ago in my title, The Akron Genesis
of Alcoholics Anonymous (http://www.dickb.com/Akron.shtml).
You can study them there if you like. Long after A.A. was founded, Lois Wilson
wrote that it had been founded in 1934 when drunks were coming to the
So you’ll have to make up your own mind. FDR changed
Thanksgiving. We call Armistice Day Veterans Day. And on and
on. Which leads to the conclusion that
“founding” days are perhaps less important than the founding.
Personally, I’m convinced that A.A. began. I am convinced it began at Dr.
Bob’s Home in
Do you know when A.A. was founded? I don’t. But I’m very sure it was founded because that’s where I took my last drink forever and was cured.
Where did the original program come from?
I know
what it was, where it began, when it began, and how it was practiced. But
you’d have a heck of a time convincing a lot of AAs
today. People who have never met or even read much about Bill
Wilson, Dr. Bob, or the original days in
In the first place, people have chosen to call this the “flying
blind” period. Yet there never was more light
shining on the cure for alcoholism. Real alcoholics who really tried, who were
“medically incurable,” who were willing to go to any lengths, were
cured in astonishing percentages. By 1938, some forty of them—called the
“pioneers”—were maintaining sobriety, half or more for two
years. Richard K. has produced three books now detailing who these folks were,
when they got sober, and what happened to them. Their names can be found on a
dozen rosters. The pictures of many are on the walls at Dr. Bob’s Home in
In the second place, the program came from the Bible. Maybe
that’s why doubters and unbelievers want to call it the “flying
blind” period. The Bible was read to Bill and Bob at the Smith Home each
day in the summer of 1935 by Dr. Bob’s wife Anne Smith. Bob had studied
the Bible all his life and began refreshing his memory as a youngster. He read
the Bible straight through three times. Bob and Bill stayed up until the wee
hours of the morning every day that Bill stayed at the Smith home in
Later, when asked a question about the program, Dr. Bob said:
“What does the Good Book say.” He often commented that the old
timers felt that the answer to all their problems could be found in the Good
Book. Over and over, Bob emphasized that the Book of James, the sermon on the mount
(Matthew 5, 6, 7), and 1 Corinthians 13 were absolutely essential. I’ve
written much about the specifics AAs borrowed from
these three books. See The Good Book and The
When was the original program developed and
completed?
There’s a very simple set of facts. Yet many don’t want to acknowledge them because they are busy saying that Dr. Bob could never get sober studying the Bible or being a member of the Oxford Group, that there were “six” Oxford Group Steps (which there weren’t), that there were “six” word-of-mouth A.A. steps (which Wilson characterized in half a dozen ways), and that the “twelve” steps somehow represented the “steps” that early AAs took (even though there were no steps at all, not six, not twelve, not any) and even though there was no basic text containing any steps until the Spring of 1939 (shortly after Bill had asked Rev. Sam Shoemaker to write the Steps), and even though the actual vote authorizing Bill to write a textbook was controversial, was taken in Akron, and occurred in 1937 or 1938 before Bill ever began writing the Big Book. Dr. Bob also pointed out that, in the development years, “there were no steps” and that “our stories didn’t amount to anything.” So, by 1938, when Bill and Bob had counted noses, found that some 40 men were maintaining continuous sobriety—some for as long as two years, and concluded that God had shown them how to pass along their program, the program could certainly be said to have been completed.
What Was The Original A.A.
Program?
The program in
Rockefeller dispatched his representative, Frank Amos, to
Some of the Amos Reports can be found in DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers:
Amos did not discuss the hospitalizations at
You can find an excellent and concise description of the whole process in my title “God and Alcoholism: Our Growing Opportunity in the 21st Century (http://www.dickb.com/Godandalcoholism.shtml), pp. 2 -12.
A short description of the original program as Frank Amos described it, would be:
There is much more in terms of activity—Morning quiet time with Anne Smith at the Smith home, individual quiet time, the Wednesday Oxford Group meeting, regular informal meetings at the Smith Home, Bible study and prayer and the reading of Christian literature being circulated, talks with Dr. Bob and Anne and Henrietta Seiberling, and visits to newcomers at the hospital. But the “cure”—the permanent solution to their problems--was described as above in the Frank Amos report.
No drunkalogs. No steps. No Big Book. No service structure. No offices. And no money! Just the Creator, Jesus Christ, obedience to God’s will, the Bible, prayer, fellowship, and witness.
It worked! Seventy-five percent documented success rate in those days; and, shortly thereafter, at the beginning of the 1940’s, a ninety-three percent documented success rate. Documented by carefully kept rosters, names, dates, addresses, and phone numbers.
END